Update by Mike (5:30pm EDT): The crew on Baseball Tonight has shot down this rumor, citing a Yanks’ official.

Update 5:17 p.m.: For what it’s worth, Baggarly has updated his blog post to reflect his info that the Brewers may now be the frontrunner. A few reports have the Yanks ready to go hard after A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe as well, but that doesn’t mean Sabathia is completely out. Either this is building to a head or it’s a Vegas-inspired Red Herring.

It’s been confirmed to me that the Giants had discussions with CC Sabathia’s camp last night, and they expect to have face-to-face meetings with the left-hander in San Francisco after the winter meetings.

It sure must’ve have been a productive discussion, because word is that Sabathia has declined the Yankees’ six-year, $140 million offer. (I must stress that’s unconfirmed, but talk is spreading fast. If true, look for the Yanks to get hyper-aggressive on A.J. Burnett.)

Second, it makes no sense — none — for Sabathia to reject the Yanks’ offer. He loses all bargaining position in doing so, and the Giants, Angels or Brewers would have no reason to come close to the Yanks’ generous offer. Even if he has no intention of signing with the Yanks, he is far better served to keep the Yanks’ offer alive.

According to Ken Rosenthal’s 12:50 p.m. update (scroll down at the link), the Giants plan to meet with CC Sabathia and his agent this weekend in San Francisco. In other words, the Yankees will not be leaving Las Vegas with CC in tow. This story is going to drag on for a few more weeks, and impatient fans are just going to have hold their horses for a little while longer.

Just a quick follow-up on Joe’s latest: According to PeteAbe, the Yanks and CC Sabathia met again today. While Pete also has word of slight interest on the part of the Dodgers, this second meeting means one of two things: either Sabathia is going to say, “Thanks, but no” (unlikely) or he’s hammering out what it means to be a Yankee with the team. We’ll find out soon enough what’s going on.

Both the rhetoric and real news surrounding CC Sabathia are ramping up. After last night’s reported meeting between the two sides, everyone had something to say. Since the meeting went, according to Brian Cashman, “great,” let’s see where everything stands.

The reason Genske wanted the meeting, said one source, is that the agent is trying to buy more time for another team more to Sabathia’s liking to approach the Yankee bid.

With each passing day, the likelihood of that lessens considerably. “(Genske) has to be concerned about them pulling the offer and moving on to the other (free agent) pitchers,” the source said. “If he blows this deal, he’s dead as an agent. For one thing, who’s going to approach that $140 million if the Yankees are out of it? Sabathia winds up with a deal $20 million less than Barry Zito? Like I said, (Genske’s) dead.”

That last line is an interesting one. Sabathia basically is waiting for another offer to come along that approaches the Yanks’ deal. It doesn’t seem likely to happen.

The way it was put to me, it’s not that he’d hate playing in New York or couldn’t handle it — it’s that he knows the Yankees’ offer isn’t going to vanish, and he wants to make sure he knows what all of his options are before deciding where to sign. Sounds doggone sensible if you ask me.

Graziano’s conclusion is a lot more sensible that the doom-and-gloomers predicting that Sabathia hates New York and doesn’t want to play here. In that vein, my favorite article of the day comes from Jon Heyman who alleges that Sabathia hates going to Florida for Spring Training. I’ve been to both places, and let me just say that Arizona isn’t really any better.

Heyman also notes that the Brewers may have up their offer to six years and $110-$120 million with an opt-out clause. It sounds like a Hail Mary offer made with the expectation that Sabathia isn’t going to take it. The wheels, they are a-turnin’.

Update 4:11 p.m.: A few people have started to take the “Randy Johnson was unhappy” line of reasoning in the comments, and I just wanted to drop in one more link that I forgot to include up here originally. All reports indicate that the Yanks believe Sabathia will be fully invested in New York if he were to sign. He may prefer California, but he’s not resistant to the idea of New York. He’s not a cranky Randy Johnson-type. I’m not worried about his being unhappy in New York.

MLBTR links to a GAKIII rumor concerning the Brewers and Sabathia. Milwaukee may give CC an opt-out after three years in an effort to get the lefty to stay. I’m sure that will end well for the Brewers.

John Harper is a bit wary of the CC Sabathia dance. The Yanks, he writes, seem to believe CC will be theirs before the Winter Meetings are out, and they just might be getting ahead of themselves.

Considering their blowaway offer has been dangling out there for three weeks, the Yankees privately seem pretty smug about landing CC Sabathia, laughing off the idea that the Giants are serious competitors or that the Angels, if and when they do make an offer, will go anywhere near $140 million.

“We’re confident it will happen,” was the way one Yankee person summed up the organization’s feeling one day last week.

Too confident? Is the Yankee brass reading the situation correctly, that Sabathia won’t walk away from an extra $30-$40 million even if it’s clear he’s not dying to be a Yankee? Or are they underestimating either Sabathia’s desire to play on the West Coast or some other organization’s willingness to make an offer well north of $100 million?

Harper’s basic premise is one worth considering. Maybe the Yanks are being too smug about Sabathia. But at the same time, if they lose out on Sabathia, they have a fall-back plan, and that fall-back plan, as I said yesterday, could lead to a more balanced team. If they lose out on Sabathia and pursue Teixeira, Sheets, Lowe or Burnett, they wouldn’t be landing that big ace they could use, but they would be shoring up both their offense and pitching.

I think Sabathia would be more important come the post-season, but you have to get to October before you can start worrying about October. I don’t think the Yanks or their fans should worry, per se, if they miss out on Sabathia. Plan B isn’t the worst thing in the world either.

For a long, drawn-out take on Brian Cashman’s trip out west — replete with a “he’s going to stare him straight through the eyes and into the heart of his soul” analogy — check out Jon Heyman’s latest. It features two anonymous-to-him bids for Sabathia and a growing sense that the Yanks want to judge Sabathia’s interest before withdrawing their offer and pursuing Mark Teixeira.

The more I think about it and the long Sabathia stews, the more I prefer Teixeira. It has nothing to do with Sabathia’s perceived desire and everything to do with Teixeira’s offensive and defensive prowess. The first baseman may just be a better cog.

Ken Davidoff believes that the Brewers won’t go higher than six years and $110 million. The Yanks’ offer would remain the best known deal by a significant amount.

Anthony McCarron disputes Heyman’s report. Those other two anonymous deals, according to McCarron’s sources, aren’t really there. One source speculates that they are smoke screens tossed up by Sabathia’s agent to draw more out of the Yanks. That source really doesn’t see the Giants as a legitimate option. Bruce Jenkins, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, isn’t ready to write the Giants off yet.